Naatak Radio

Send us Fan Mail This week on Naatak Radio presenting Mahendra Bhishm's TANG NAZAR.  The legend goes that when Lord Rama was sent to the forest, his entire kingdom followed him. He told them, "Men and Women, please wipe your tears away and go back." They left, but a group of people stayed behind, at the edge of the forest because they were neither men nor women.  The "Kinnars&q...

Send us Fan Mail Presenting Saadat Hasan Manto's radio play: Aao Radio Sunein. Lajwanti and Kishore are at each other over what radio station to tune into, until Narayan steps to save the day.  Performers: Sunny Moza, Monica Singh, Mustafa Khan, Vikas Dhurka Support the show Subscribe to Naatak Radio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Jio Saavn or wherever you get your podcasts. You...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Naatak Radio, a short story “The Cub” by Lois Dykeman Kleihauer, describing the changing relationship between a boy and his father. The young boy grows up admiring his father’s physical strength and the two wrestle and playfight throughout his childhood. Although at first the father always wins, the day comes when things change.  Adapted and performed by Kartic Bharga...

Send us Fan Mail Presenting a delightful tale from one of the most prolific feminist writers of the 20th century - Padma Shri Ismat Chughtai: FIRDAUS (meaning: paradise). Written in her classic first person narrative, Firdaus is about Saleema who is needlessly beaten by her husband and confides in Ismat "appa" about it often, until one day things change. Written with a healthy dose of hu...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Naatak Radio we present, Rabindranath Tagore's KABULIWALA in 3 languages, Hindi, Bengali, and English.  Kabuliwala is a Bengali short story written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1892. The story is of a merchant from Kabul, who comes to Calcutta (present day Kolkata), India each year for selling dry-fruits and while living in India he becomes friends with a five-year-...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Naatak Radio we present, Rabindranath Tagore's KABULIWALA in 3 languages, Hindi, Bengali, and English.  Kabuliwala is a Bengali short story written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1892. The story is of a merchant from Kabul, who comes to Calcutta (present day Kolkata), India each year for selling dry-fruits and while living in India he becomes friends with a five-year-...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Naatak Radio we present, Rabindranath Tagore's KABULIWALA in 3 languages, Hindi, Bengali, and English.  Kabuliwala is a Bengali short story written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1892. The story is of a merchant from Kabul, who comes to Calcutta (present day Kolkata), India each year for selling dry-fruits and while living in India he becomes friends with a five-year-...

Send us Fan Mail Today we celebrate Dr. Annapurnand Verma who passed away 58 years ago today (4th December, 1962) at the young age of 67. We present one of his most famous stories: AKBARI LOTA. Lala Jhaulal is in a real pickle. He has committed to give a large sum of money to his wife and to make matters worse, has accidentally injured an English tourist. Will he be able to wriggle out of this sit...

Send us Fan Mail One slip. One Mistake. One mess-up. That's all you get. One fault can change the whole course of life. So, think before you act. The Kapoor family suffers the consequences of one such action.  This Thanksgiving weekend, thank the ones you love! Written and Directed by: Ritvik Agastya Starring: Havish Ravipati, Kamala Subramaniam, Natasha Nema, and Kanishk Pandey Support the s...

Send us Fan Mail Presenting Anton Chekov's "THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL" in Marwari. A marriage proposal leads to a hilarious quarrel about land and cattle. Artists: Devu Heda, Sonal Kabra (Maloo), Prashant Maloo Director: Manish Sabu Translator: Prashant Bharati Maloo Adaptation: Pratiksha Rao-Vaidya Support the show Subscribe to Naatak Radio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify,...

Send us Fan Mail On this Diwali day of 2020, we mark the start of season 2 of Naatak Radio with a beautiful short story on the theme of Diwali: SANKALP.  Shreya wants to celebrate her first Diwali in their new home just as she remembers from her childhood. But all is not well in the household, and she needs to muster the strength to kill the darkness within, this Diwali. Can she succeed? Written b...

Send us Fan Mail From the Naatak Radio archives, presenting two beautiful poems by the gifted Anjana Surin. Recorded in conversation with Shubhla Bhatia Jotwani, the two poems were first aired on Radio Zindagi 1170AM in the Bay Area in 2017!  The first poem is called RADIO SONG describing the wonders of Radio, bringing back the cherished childhood nostalgia.  The second poem is called SAWAL JAWAB,...

Send us Fan Mail " The Monkey's Paw " is a supernatural short story by author W. W. Jacobs , first published in England in the collection The Lady of the Barge in 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate .  It has been adapted many times in other media, including plays, fi...

Send us Fan Mail ‘This is Going to Hurt Just a Little Bit’ by Ogden Nash is a humorous poem filled with exaggerations, puns and metaphors. It is a hilarious description of the whole experience of sitting in a dental chair which causes the poet great agony. Students all across India learn this poem in school.  Ritwik Verma was one such student and this poem left a mark on him. Fast forward a few ye...

Send us Fan Mail Chief ki Daawat is one of the legendary writer Bhishm Sahni's most famous stories. A humble Indian official invites his chief, an American, to his house for dinner. The low-ranked official believes that if his boss is impressed by his hospitality, he would surely grant him the long due promotion. The man and his wife turn the house upside down to make it spic and span for the...

Send us Fan Mail Lajwanti convinces her husband Kishore and his friend Narayan to spin a web of lies together with her. Will they get entangled or manage to escape? Presenting the 4th in the series of hilarious radio plays written by Saadat Hasan Manto. In 1940, when Manto left Lahore for New Delhi to take up the position of staff artist at All India Radio in New Delhi, he stopped en route at Amri...

Send us Fan Mail On Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary year, Naatak Radio presents the music recorded live during the performance of Naatak's grand musical GANDHI. The play captured the arc of Gandhi’s life and times, from his ‘experiments with truth’ in London to his campaigns in South Africa, to the civil disobedience movement he led against the British in India and was presented...

Send us Fan Mail Three men starving on a life raft, in the middle of the sea, employ a hilariously logical application of bureaucratic procedures to determine which of them is to become dinner for the other two. Actors : Surender Singh, Rohit Dube, Snehal Pachigar, and Rajiv Nema Adapted and Directed by : Surender Singh About the playwright Sławomir Mrożek , (born June 29, 1930, Borzęcin, Poland—d...

Send us Fan Mail Presenting Lucille Fletcher’s THE HITCHHIKER , directed by Kartic Bhargav and featuring Kartic Bhargav along with Edward Keyani , Shelly Perrier Smith. Sound mixing and remastering by Navi Viswanathan. NOTE: For the most optimal experience, we recommend using headphones for this episode. A typical cross country becomes anything but with a mysterious hitchhiker! A a radio play writ...

Send us Fan Mail Munshi Premchand is one of the foremost Hindi writers of the 20th century. A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the " Upanyas Samrat " ("Emperor among Novelists") by writers. And Kafan, published in 1936, is thought to be the author's best, blackest, and most powerful short story .  Set in an Indian village, the milieu of...

Send us Fan Mail When it comes to stories about the Indo-Pak partition of 1947, one stands out almost instantly, Toba Tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto. A powerful satire on the relationship between India and Pakistan, Toba Tek Singh presents a unique view of the lunacy of the times from the point of view of the lunatics of the Lahore asylum. The story is set two or three years after the 1947 partit...

Send us Fan Mail The world of poetry lost an absolute gem of an artist on Aug 11, 2020. Rahat Indori, the undisputed king of "Mushairas", a poetic symposium where poets have the freedom to express themselves freely, passed away due to Covid-19.  Naatak Radio's episode this week is a humble tribute to this legend, who transformed the world of poetry with his creations that were simpl...

Send us Fan Mail This week's bonus episode features a tribute to the king of Mushairas and one of the most impactful poets from the recent times, Rahat Indori. This is the original tribute as aired in Akashvani Ahmedabad composed and read by Paresh Vyas in Gujarati.  Listen to Episode 26 for the tribute in Hindi by Rajiv Nema. Support the show Subscribe to Naatak Radio on Apple Podcasts, Goog...

Send us Fan Mail Aug 21, 2020 was Padma Shri Ismat Chughtai's 125th birth anniversary. One of India's most prominent authors, Ismat Chughtai has written countless stories, novels, and even films, but none more controversial at its release in 1942 and popular after than LIHAAF . Written as a first person narrative, Lihaaf is a ' terrifying ' memory of the narrator from her child...

Send us Fan Mail "At the stroke of the midnight hour" on 15th August 1947, British India was divided into two independent and self-governing countries of India and Pakistan. As the two countries awoke to "life and freedom" nearly 15 million people found themselves displaced as the states of Punjab and Bengal were partitioned strictly on the basis of religion. Among the many sto...